Telephone and other electrical cables are interconnected by joining or splicing individual conductors of two or more cables. Since the integrity of each cable is breached at the end exposing the conductors for the splice, it is desirable to provide some type of electrical insulation and mechanical protection for the splice and cable ends. This is particularly so where the cables are buried underground and the splice will be buried after completion.
The service wire splice enclosure disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,374 and Canadian Pat. No. 1,157,137 offers significant improvement over devices earlier developed. The enclosure is suitable for burial in the qround and provide moistureproofing and mechanical protection for the splice. A pair of shells which slide together, form a box-like enclosure having a plurality of internal compartments containing a quantity of sealant so that when the two sections are brought together with the cable splice therebetween, the splice components are completely surrounded by the sealant to provide waterproofing. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,374 is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, for all purposes.
A service wire splice enclosure of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,374 is commercially available from Communications Technology Corporation of Dallas, Tex. and is distributed as closure Part No. C8810 under its registered trademark "KLIK-IT."
A body of sealant is provided in separate shells of the "KLIK-IT" closure such that when the shells are forced together around the cable splice, the sealant forms a moistureproof barrier around the splice. As the shells are pushed together, wedge-shaped bosses on one of the shells snap into openings formed in the other shell for securing the shells together. The closure is extremely effective for protecting two pair and four pair cable splices.
Telephone cables generally incorporate from 2 to 1000 pairs of conductors. The average cable has about 400 pairs, while many service cables have 6 to 25 pairs of conductors. Heretofore, attempts to use enclosures of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,374 to accommodate spliced telephone cables from six pairs of twenty-four gauge conductors to twenty-five pair of twenty-two gauge conductors have not been effective in protecting the splices from damage from impact and from moisture ingress because of the size of the splice and accompanyinq problems encountered.
Splice closures theretofore developed for six to twenty-five pair cables are generally of either plastic or metal construction with which on-site mixed and poured encapsulation compound is used. This method is both crafts sensitive and time consuming.
Another method commonly used for protection of six to twenty-five pair cables utilizes shrink wrap which is shrunk over the splice using an open flame torch. This method is time consuming, craft sensitive, and expensive. Some feel that it creates a safety hazard because has tanks are required to produce the open flame.